Hello! I'm currently running a Level 4 Druid in Lost Mine of Phandelver. My party has 8 people counting me, and we're fighting a homebrewed boss. She's a dragonborn artificer who is CR 3, I'm looking for some tips to win this quickly and efficiently.
8 players is crazy. Its hard to imagine a CR3 boss giving 8 x L4 players a hard time.
We would probably need more information about the spells available to you, your party make up and anything else you can tell us about the artificer. Some of the Decent spells though are Heat Metal and Spike Growth. Spike Growth has great range and can keep an opponent from moving or at least block their path of retreat so your party can close the distance. Heat Metal is just nasty, constant damage for something like an artificer who is probably stuck in armor, but Artificer's need to use tools for casting so you could try targeting whatever tool they're using and force them to drop it.
If I wanted a CR3 artificer to last against a party of 8 x L4 adventurers, I'd probably make them ranged and have a lot of AoE stuff ready to unleash.
So, here's some more deets. The artificer is a Battlesmith, and she brought a big metal boar to the fight. I have heat metal in my spells, and I've cooked off its servos, meaning it's out of commission. The artificer herself though, we've seen her deal upwards of 30 damage (She nearly killed our main tank) with a single ranged attack. Her weapon is metal, and i have heat metal cast on it. Our party consists of Me, another Druid (Circle of the moon, pretty much always in wild shape), a rogue, a ranger and his pet, a monk, a fighter, and an eldritch knight. The rogue got some bad rolls on his hit dice, and dies a lot. Our ranger pretty much always uses his pet to fight, but can be useful himself. Our monk is well, a monk. Crappy (But he tries his best). Our stock fighter is our big tank, he sponges damage, and our eldritch knight plays a supportive role. Where we last left off, it looked like the artificer was readying an explosive.
30 damage sounds like something higher that CR3 level, but maybe they rolled lucky or used some one-off tricks. I wouldn't really expect them to be above level 6 for CR3.
Already sounds pretty good with the heat metal on that weapon/tool. Every turn you should be using your bonus action to hit more damage. Just remember that each time you do they have to make a constitution saving throw or drop the item, if they do hang on to it they're at disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks, but if the artificer is casting an AoE spell without an attack roll that won't help if they can hang on.
Artificer Battlesmith would probably have crummy strength (although Dragonborn has +2) and dexterity as they can substitute their intelligence score for attack rolls and damage provided their weapon is magical. With this in mind you could encourage party members with decent strength (and Athletics) to try shoving the artificer prone and even grappling them. They will have disadvantage on attack rolls if they're prone and attacks against them at melee range will have advantage. Grappling will prevent them standing back up (which would cost half their move to do). The Circle of the Moon Druid should have access to Crocodile which has a special ability to grapple when it bites and Ape which has proficiency with athletics.
Other than that an artificer SHOULD have low health but whatever type of dragon born they are it'll mean they have resistance to the associated damage type and can even be immune to it for a minute. If I knew your party used a certain type of damage proficiently I would choose the associated dragon type. If the dragonborn turns on immunity to fire damage then your heat metal will be unable to cause damage, disadvantage or a possibility of being dropped.
Hello! I'm currently running a Level 4 Druid in Lost Mine of Phandelver. My party has 8 people counting me, and we're fighting a homebrewed boss. She's a dragonborn artificer who is CR 3, I'm looking for some tips to win this quickly and efficiently.
8 players is crazy. Its hard to imagine a CR3 boss giving 8 x L4 players a hard time.
We would probably need more information about the spells available to you, your party make up and anything else you can tell us about the artificer. Some of the Decent spells though are Heat Metal and Spike Growth. Spike Growth has great range and can keep an opponent from moving or at least block their path of retreat so your party can close the distance. Heat Metal is just nasty, constant damage for something like an artificer who is probably stuck in armor, but Artificer's need to use tools for casting so you could try targeting whatever tool they're using and force them to drop it.
If I wanted a CR3 artificer to last against a party of 8 x L4 adventurers, I'd probably make them ranged and have a lot of AoE stuff ready to unleash.
So, here's some more deets. The artificer is a Battlesmith, and she brought a big metal boar to the fight. I have heat metal in my spells, and I've cooked off its servos, meaning it's out of commission. The artificer herself though, we've seen her deal upwards of 30 damage (She nearly killed our main tank) with a single ranged attack. Her weapon is metal, and i have heat metal cast on it. Our party consists of Me, another Druid (Circle of the moon, pretty much always in wild shape), a rogue, a ranger and his pet, a monk, a fighter, and an eldritch knight. The rogue got some bad rolls on his hit dice, and dies a lot. Our ranger pretty much always uses his pet to fight, but can be useful himself. Our monk is well, a monk. Crappy (But he tries his best). Our stock fighter is our big tank, he sponges damage, and our eldritch knight plays a supportive role. Where we last left off, it looked like the artificer was readying an explosive.
30 damage sounds like something higher that CR3 level, but maybe they rolled lucky or used some one-off tricks. I wouldn't really expect them to be above level 6 for CR3.
Already sounds pretty good with the heat metal on that weapon/tool. Every turn you should be using your bonus action to hit more damage. Just remember that each time you do they have to make a constitution saving throw or drop the item, if they do hang on to it they're at disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks, but if the artificer is casting an AoE spell without an attack roll that won't help if they can hang on.
Artificer Battlesmith would probably have crummy strength (although Dragonborn has +2) and dexterity as they can substitute their intelligence score for attack rolls and damage provided their weapon is magical. With this in mind you could encourage party members with decent strength (and Athletics) to try shoving the artificer prone and even grappling them. They will have disadvantage on attack rolls if they're prone and attacks against them at melee range will have advantage. Grappling will prevent them standing back up (which would cost half their move to do). The Circle of the Moon Druid should have access to Crocodile which has a special ability to grapple when it bites and Ape which has proficiency with athletics.
Other than that an artificer SHOULD have low health but whatever type of dragon born they are it'll mean they have resistance to the associated damage type and can even be immune to it for a minute. If I knew your party used a certain type of damage proficiently I would choose the associated dragon type. If the dragonborn turns on immunity to fire damage then your heat metal will be unable to cause damage, disadvantage or a possibility of being dropped.